CEO of Chicken Giant Pilgrim’s Pride Charged in Price Fix Probe

The chief executive officer of Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., America’s second-biggest chicken producer, was charged by U.S. prosecutors with conspiring to fix prices as part of an antitrust investigation of chicken-processing companies.

Jayson Penn was indicted by a grand jury in Colorado along with Roger Austin, a former vice president of the company, the Justice Department said Wednesday. They face a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

The allegations against the leader of a top American poultry producer were the latest bombshell to hit the meat industry that’s been reeling from thousands of ...